More shocking still? The most popular cereal brands that we feed our kids before school contain three times as much sugar as the one used in that study. I uncovered research that shows your bowl of 'healthy' cereal can take blood sugar up to shockingly high levels previously thought to be only attainable by people with diabetes. The wrong breakfast can deregulate our glucose levels for the rest of the day, so lunch and dinner in turn go on to create ever bigger spikes. A chocolate croissant has an equally dramatic effect - pain au raisin, too. Just as bad as the spike and drop from my chocolate pancake. Unfortunately, Western diets lean towards breakfasting on glucose-spiking foods such as cereal, toast and jam, croissants, granola, muesli bars, oats and fruit juice - even fruit smoothies and acai bowls are composed of mostly starch and sugar.Īs a child I'd wolf down pancakes slathered in Nutella before rushing out of the house, much to the dismay of my mother who thought she was being healthier by only sprinkling a little sugar over her bowl of Special K.īut when I tested the impact of my mother's favourite breakfast on my blood glucose levels I found it triggered a massive spike, followed by a big crash two hours later. This sets you up for a cycle of spikes and dips all day: cravings, fatigue, sugar addiction. We eat sugary breakfasts over and over again yet feel more and more chronically fatigued.įor one thing, the glucose spike from a sweet breakfast has been shown to damage the energy-producing centre of our cells (our mitochondria).Īnd the rapid spike in glucose is almost always followed by an equally dramatic fall hours later (as a rush of insulin is released to remove excess glucose from the blood) which drops you into an energy slump that can only be rectified by a strong coffee and a mid-morning biscuit. We may be well-intentioned, thinking that breakfast gives us energy, when in fact it hurts our body's ability to make energy efficiently, making us tired and kicking off all kinds of side effects.
#Lipstick coffee buzz 7 skin#
Metabolic processes take hours to unfold, compound over time and become mixed with all the other things that happen in a day, so connecting the dots takes a bit of detective work.Īs a biochemist, I have long been fascinated by the impact fluctuating blood sugar levels can have on our health and mood, but it was only when I started measuring my own blood glucose levels using a continuous glucose monitor (which reads glucose levels in the blood through a very thin wire piercing the skin on the upper arm) that I made the connection between what I ate for breakfast and how I felt throughout the rest of the day.Īnd what I discovered turned everything I thought I knew about healthy eating on its head.
But what you probably won't have done is traced these symptoms back to what you ate for breakfast.Īnd no wonder - because we don't instantly feel the effect. Perhaps you have just become accustomed to feeling under par, and you've learned to rely on coffee and sugary snacks to keep you functioning.
Are you a martyr to mood swings, brain fog and outbursts of irrational anxiety? Do you drop into bed at night feeling exhausted but unable to sleep?
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